International condemnation

The International Labour Organisation has condemned the UK’s industrial action laws as incompatible with ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has held that collective bargaining is an “essential element of the right to freedom of association under Article 11 (Demir and Baykara v Turkey (Case No. 34503/97/2008, seeChapter 5) and that the European Convention on Human Rights contains a right to strike. Unions such as RMT and Unite have taken cases to the ECHR to challenge the lack of a right to strike in the UK.